Filecoin vs Arweave: which wins in 2026?
Head-to-head on the facts that decide the purchase: real prices in the provider's own unit, minimum, KYC, proof, payment and terms - every number sourced in the linked reviews.
Short answer: Filecoin wins overall (7.3/10 vs 6.4/10). Arweave is the better pick if you care most about reliability. Facts checked 2026-09-24.
| Filecoin | Arweave | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score (0-10) | 7.3 | 6.4 |
| Vertical | Decentralized storage | Decentralized storage |
| Type | Filecoin storage provider | permanent storage |
| Price from | $2.50 per TiB/mo per copy | $57.90 per GB one-off |
| Minimum | unknown | unknown |
| KYC | none | none |
| Proof | published | published |
| Payment | FIL, USDFC · fiat | AR · fiat |
| Contract term | unknown | unknown |
| Maintenance / fee | unknown | unknown |
| Operator | Filecoin | Arweave |
| Facts checked | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-24 |
// Score breakdown
Filecoin leads on economics (+2), transparency (+1), contract terms (+3), support (+1) · Arweave leads on reliability (+1).
why 7.3/10?
why 6.4/10?
// Filecoin at a glance
The most credible decentralised storage market, and FOC now publishes a genuinely transparent ~$5/TiB/mo managed price with on-chain possession proofs, but raw deal pricing stays opaque and durability is per-deal rather than protocol-wide.
++ What works
- Official FOC list price: $2.50/TiB/mo per copy (min 2 copies) - cheap vs S3
- On-chain PoRep/PoSt and new PDP proofs make possession independently verifiable
- Onramps make it easy: Fil One is drop-in S3 at $4.99/TB/mo with $0 egress
- Pay-per-epoch, on-chain, no lock-in; empty data sets cost nothing
- Large, long-running network (mainnet 2020)
-- What to watch
- No protocol-wide price for raw deals; SP pricing is bilateral and opaque
- No protocol-level durability SLA - redundancy is per deal/onramp choice
- Cheapest deals often depend on Filecoin Plus subsidies and allocator approval
- Retrieval was historically the weak point; Filecoin Beam is new
- Two notable reseller onramps (Estuary, Banyan) are dead
// Arweave at a glance
Only the right tool for small, high-value, permanently-public artifacts: the one-off fee is AR-denominated and volatile (~13.33 AR/GiB on 2026-09-24) and 'permanent' is an economic endowment bet, not a durability SLA.
++ What works
- True one-time payment model - no subscriptions, no recurring bill
- On-chain proof of random-access possession (SPoRA) is independently verifiable
- Long uninterrupted mainnet run (since June 2018)
- No protocol-level retrieval/egress fee; public gateways serve data
- Bundlers (ArDrive Turbo, Irys) make card-funded uploads easy
-- What to watch
- 3-4 orders of magnitude more expensive than rent-based storage for bulk data
- USD cost is volatile because the fee is AR-denominated
- No delete, no retention control, public by default
- 'Permanent' rests on the endowment/token economics, not an SLA
- No S3 compatibility; per-TB-month is null by construction
// FAQ
Which is cheaper, Filecoin or Arweave?
Filecoin publishes a price (from $2.50 per TiB/mo per copy); Arweave does not publish a comparable figure - and unknown is not free. Compare only the same unit before concluding anything.
Which is more verifiable, Filecoin or Arweave?
Tie - both publish partial or full proof (full).
Which needs less KYC, Filecoin or Arweave?
Both have the same KYC stance (none).
Which has the longer track record?
Arweave has the longer track record (since 2018).
Scores and facts: meta-reviews with dated sources - Filecoin · Arweave. Method: how we verify. More: all providers compared.